A Berniecrat Takes on Trump and the Koch Brothers in Kansas

A Berniecrat Takes on Trump and the Koch Brothers in Kansas

Republicans are pouring money into the race in an attempt to save a GOP seat.

April 10, 2017

James Thompson speaks during a debate in Wichita, Kansas on March 23, 2017. (Bo Rader / Wichita Eagle via AP)

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“I’m totally new to politics—I was inspired to run by Bernie. After the election, I decided to get out from behind my Facebook keyboard and try to make a difference, so I decided to run for office,” says James Thompson, a Kansas civil-rights attorney whose Bernie Sanders–style bid for an open Kansas House seat has spooked Republicans in Washington.

As Tuesday’s special-election vote approached, the National Republican Congressional Committee poured money into a last-minute media blitz to prevent Thompson from taking the seat vacated by Donald Trump’s CIA director, former congressman Mike Pompeo. House Speaker Paul Ryan even issued a “personal request” that donors open their checkbooks for the Republican candidate, Ron Estes, in “one of the most important House races in the country.”

Mike Pompeo was known as the “Koch Brothers’ Congressman” and “the congressman from Koch” because of his steady subservience to the right-wing agenda of billionaire campaign donors Charles and David Koch. Koch Industries is headquartered in Wichita, the largest city in the Fourth Congressional District that Thompson hopes to grab from the Republicans—and their wealthy patrons.

Thompson is running a campaign that proudly embraces the “not the billionaires” ethic of Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid. Raised in poverty—he quit high school to support his family at a time when they were living in a van—Thompson says he is running to preserve public education, health-care protections, and the social safety net that helped him make it from the streets to law school, and that Koch-backed candidates propose to shred.

“It’s in the first sentence of the Constitution—promote the general welfare,” says Thompson. “We must provide a certain level of safety for everybody… make sure it’s accessible.”

“I was inspired to run by Bernie.”—Kansas congressional candidate James Thompson

That’s not a message that billionaires and their networks of Republican campaign donors embrace. As The Topeka Capital-Journal reported last week, big money is being spent to save Estes, the Republican who wants to be the next “congressman from Koch.” “Among the political action committees contributing more than $93,000 to Estes’ campaign are groups tied to Koch Industries and to various conservative political organizations,” noted the paper. “Also funneling money into his campaign were the political action committees for industry groups such as the American Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders, National Business Aviation Association, and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, among others.”

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In contrast, Thompson is following the Sanders campaign model of relying on small donations. More than 95 percent of the Democrat’s donations come from individuals, and he has gotten little help from DC Democrats who have not, for the most part, taken the Kansas contest seriously. Mimicking the Sanders campaign in 2016, the Thompson average donation is $25, and his campaign says the money’s coming mostly from Kansas.

Estes has all the advantages: He’s the elected state treasurer of Kansas, he’s a career politician with strong ties to special-interest groups in Kansas and Washington, and he’s a Republican running in a district that has sent Republicans to Congress for decades. His wife, Susan, is a longtime Republican operative who until last year was the Kansas-based field director for the Koch brothers–backed Americans for Prosperity.

But Thompson has mounted a muscular campaign that emphasizes his military service, his gun ownership, his economic populism, and his respect for immigrants, civil rights, and women’s rights. While Estes, a Trump elector last year, defends the president and unpopular Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback, Thompson calls the special election “a referendum on Trump’s policies and Brownback’s policies.” That full-spectrum opposition to right-wing policies at the national and state levels reflects the understanding of progressives who argue that conservative donors have put their stamp on every level of politics.

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“It is not just our district or state that needs to be concerned about this election. This election is literally about a man who wants to take the failed policies of the Brownback administration and nationalize them,” says Thompson. “We have shown why trickle-down economics don’t work, we have shown his policies have failed. They have been disastrous for our state.”

Sanders reinforced that message when he came to Kansas in February and addressed 1,500 Kansas Democrats and their allies. The senator described Kansas as “ground zero for trickle-down economics.” He also told Kansans that, despite the odds in what has been an overwhelmingly Republican state in recent years, “We can defeat the Trump agenda. We can create a progressive America if millions of people stand up and fight back.”

Thompson, who introduced Sanders at the February gathering, wears his endorsement from Our Revolution, the group Sanders backers formed last year, as a badge of honor. Along with a growing number of first-time candidates this year, he says: “Bernie Sanders’ message spoke to me. He talked about progressive values. He talked about health care for all. He talked about returning the working class to prominence in this country.”

Thompson is running an uphill race in 2017. But like Sanders in 2016, he has gained traction by proposing a new politics that’s “good for everyone instead of just the rich and powerful.”

Why isn't the Democratic party supporting these special election candidates? With a little help from the DNC's corporate donors, Thompson may very well have won.

Or did I answer my own question? The corporate donors do not support candidates such as Thompson? As a lifelong Democrat, I've just about given up on the lot of them.

(4)(0)

Jack Campbellsays:

April 11, 2017 at 6:02 pm

My previous comment should read shine the spotlight, not break.

(0)(0)

Jack Campbellsays:

April 11, 2017 at 6:00 pm

"As Tuesday's special-election vote approached" you mean like Tuesday today? Why in the hell has this not been in the news long ago? Kansas is the perfect place to back a candidate like Thompson, it is the benchmark for conservative failure. If it was not the goal of the Democratic National Committee to spotlight this election it should have been. I would have been pleased to contribute to break the spotlight the continued failure of Republican economics, they are the ruin of public services and of governments responsibility to promote the general welfare.

(7)(1)

David Gottfriedsays:

April 11, 2017 at 1:27 am

What a fantastic dude.
When is the election.
Speaking of Kansas and Politics:
In 1968, Bobby Kennedy went to Kansas in the opening days of his campaign for president. At the University of Kansas, he raised the liberal banner like a lion, railing against the War in Vietnam and black people in Mississipi who were literally starving. The crowd became a volcano of passion. One of the men in the press, who was left wing, was so enthused by his thundersous reception in a state often thought of as conservative that he shouted, "Kansas, Kansas, we're going all the fucking way."
If this man can win in Kansas, great things are possible.

I really wanted to say:

If this man wins in Kansas it will be akin to John Lennon and George Harrison rising from the dead and making a new album with Paul and Ringo.

But that would seem too insane even if it is a tad poetic.

(6)(0)

Peter Smithsays:

April 10, 2017 at 11:35 pm

So many people are still acting as though there is such a thing as the Democratic Party, whereas The Democratic Party are three words on some office building in Washington. It is over. It is finished. And so is the Republican Party. I will bet much more money than I can afford to lose that - in the US Senate, especially - in 2018 the number of (for want of a better word) affiliations beside the names of candidates for the congress will be in double figures. The DNC/RNC hegemony has been around for 100 years and more. It has to end. Neither of the most popular candidates for presidential nominations last year was a "regular" member of the party whose nomination he sought. If that doesn't tell you something, you need a new prescription for your specs.

(13)(3)

Doug Barrsays:

April 10, 2017 at 7:02 pm

Like Bernie, Thompson doesn't get it. He should be talking about razing the vertical economy so there can be a common class of humanity. https://thelastwhy.ca/poems/2012/12/13/economy.html

(1)(17)

Kyle Frenchsays:

April 10, 2017 at 10:37 pm

Sounds like you don't get it. You screw the poor long enough, they'll fight back. The poor have nothing to lose, but the billionaire class on the other hand has everything to lose. For example, the affordable healthcare act "Obama Care" for those who don't bother with reading for themselves, was a conservative think tank idea, not some democratic, liberal, socialist agenda. But suppose enough healthy poor people said screw this, I am not paying my healthcare bills what do you think would happen? The older generation that seems to believe that as long as they get theirs, to hell with the younger generation, would lose out big time. Why? It's the younger generation paying forward for the older generation. This country has been consumed by greed and something as simple as healthcare could crash the whole corrupt system. And then, perhaps, the "richest elite" would finally get it. Though they have billions to their names, they don't have the numbers. The vast population, even a small percentage say 15 to 30 percent decide not to play along, the insurance industry is in for one hell of a ride.

(22)(0)

Karin Eckvallsays:

April 11, 2017 at 1:34 pm

Doug Barr uses every Nation article as an opportunity to promote his personal web site of poetry that purportedly tackles political issues.

(1)(0)

Rita Waltonsays:

April 10, 2017 at 1:38 pm

Estes and Koch Brothers might steal the election. . . Everyone is mystified about how Brownback won reelection in 2014 because no one knows anyone who voted for him!!

(27)(1)

Edward M Protassays:

April 10, 2017 at 3:50 pm

The answer to that mystery can be found in Thomas Frank's book, "What's The Matter With Kansas".

(18)(0)

Robert Andrewssays:

April 10, 2017 at 1:05 pm

The corporate controlled DNC establishment has once again flashed it's ugly face by not whole heartily supporting a progressive. Are DNC representatives being told specifically to not support Thompson or is it party protocol to have permission before being able to lead or are they just overall lazy? Probably a combination of all three as reasons why they do not come out in droves to help pull a seat from the RNC. Bring on the primaries and light a match to get the establishment a hopping. Keep an eye on https://justicedemocrats.com/ https://ourrevolution.com/ https://brandnewcongress.org/ to see or support organizations that are lining-up progressive primary challengers against the corporate controlled DNC establishment puppets.

(27)(0)

Karin Eckvallsays:

April 11, 2017 at 1:32 pm

Gee, how long did it take Tom Perez to reveal himself as the phony that he is (which progressives already knew)...two months?

(5)(1)

Michael Robertsonsays:

April 10, 2017 at 9:48 pm

The DNC has much more important work to do, like making the case that the Russians are to blame for their election losses. Then they have to make the case that progressives who question the pro-corporate neoliberal agenda are either Putin operatives or his innocent dupes taken in by fake news. Our Democratic party at work.

(18)(0)

Patricia Boicesays:

April 10, 2017 at 12:44 pm

The Dems have to support this man! We need dozens more like him in these red states! Please read, "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer - all about the Koch Bros, the Mercers etc., the super-billionaires who want to control this country, and they've been doing a pretty good job quietly financing candidates in state elections. Resist and Vote!

(37)(0)

Betsy Smithsays:

April 10, 2017 at 5:03 pm

And if you're not doing any special this evening or tomorrow morning, make some calls: http://www.votejamesthompson.com/Phonebank?link_id=1&can_id=98c411810f83d6e0eafe4636c9f84392&source=email-something-incredible-is-happening-in-kansas-please-read&email_referrer=something-incredible-is-happening-in-kansas-please-read&email_subject=something-incredible-is-happening-in-kansas-please-read